The Gemhammer Weekly Update - 6/26/2016

Kickstarter Stretch Goal Sneak Peak Extravaganza!

Good Evening You Wonderful Internet People,

We've got another late update this week, for which I apologize. Things are starting to settle down at the day job, so barring all out catastrophe I plan for the Weekly Update to be moving to a normal Saturday morning time slot starting next week.

This week we're taking a quick look of what's in store for some of the stretch goals from the Deck of Many Things Kickstarter. We've already unlocked the Art Deck and 5 more cards for the Deck of Many More Things, and we're very close to unlocking a few more.

The Deck of Many Things Art Deck

After the original Kickstarter we asked the backers what they liked, what they didn't like and what they would like to see in the relaunch. A Deck of Many Things without the rules printed on them was the #1 most requested addition. Unfortunately the art for our decks was designed with the text box in mind so we couldn't very well remove it and have the artwork take up the entire card. However after some minor adjustments we were able to resize the artwork onto a Poker sized playing card without the text box and that is what we call the Deck of Many Things Art Deck.

The Art Deck contains the same 22 cards as the classic Deck of Many Things on poker sized playing cards, without any rules. While we designed our decks to have the rules we recognize that some of you feel that the inclusion of text boxes breaks the immersion of your role playing and so we hope that these cards will address that.

The Art Deck's back is a bit of an issue due to the extreme change in dimensions. I do intend to modify the back of the art deck to address the size difference and will be showcasing the final version of the card back in a future update. In the mean time I've included the current card back to show the difference in dimensions.

The Deck of Many Things Art Deck will be free to any backer of the Deck of Many Things Kickstarter who Pledges at the Megapack Level or Above

Deck of Illusions

We've been threatening the Deck of Illusions since the first Kickstarter and now we're a mere $2,000 away from making it a reality. The Deck of Illusions has gone through several different designs since we started making it we hope you like the version we decided on. We wanted the Deck to feel entirely different from the Deck of Many Things so we've gone with a much simpler Tribal design for the cards. The idea is that these cards merely make illusions of the thing they represent so the images on the cards are mere impressions penned onto the cards by some Wizard or artificer.

The Deck of Illusions will be poker sized and will feature 30 distinct illusions for your characters to cast in your tabletop roleplaying games.

The Deck of Illusions will be free for any Backer of the Deck of Many Things Kickstarter who buys at least one Deck.

The Deck of Even More Things

As many of you many know we've hit the stretch goal where 5 cards will be added to the Deck of Many More Things. We're also only $1,000 away from adding an additional 5 cards to the Deck of Many More Things. However should we hit $10,000 any one who bought the Deck of Many More Things will not get a simple addition of 10 cards but a whole new deck that we're calling The Deck of Even More Things.

We plan to have some sweet new artwork to show you soon. but in the Mean time I thought I would share with you the spell effects of the 5 cards that will be added to the Deck of Many More Things.

Pillars - 25 Stone Pillars rise from the Earth in a 50ft radius centered on you

Wind - a Powerful Gust of wind throws you 15 ft into the air and 25 ft straight back.

Devils - You take 8d8 Necrotic (negative energy) damage from the next enemy you face.

Legion - 1d8 Iron Golems have been sent out by your enemies to hunt you and your companions

We hope these new spell effects are to your liking and look forward to showing you the artwork for these cards.

Sneak Peak: Deck of Destinies

Since the Kickstarter has done so well and has unlocked 4 Stretch Goals we decided to reveal one of the Stretch goals we have tucked away for in case we hit that 10K mark.

Should the Kickstarter Make or Exceed $15K, everyone who Pledges at the MegaPack level or Above will receive an advance copy of the Deck of Destinies. But what is the Deck of Destinies you ask? It's a Magical item similar in function to the Deck of Many Things except each card from the deck of Destinies may only be used once. It first appeared in the classic TSR adventure "Return to White Plume Mountain" where it is described as follows

Deck of Destinies; A bound demon created this magical deck of vellum cards for Keraptis in return for its freedom. Suspicious of fiendish gifts, even when he himself has commissioned them, Keraptis filed the deck away for later research.

Anyone drawing a card from this deck becomes the recipient of its magic, for better or worse. No form of divination allows knowledge of any card's nature prior to a draw. The designs fade away upon expending their magic; thus no card can be used twice.

The Deck of Destinies cards have the following individual effects:

Black Sword: Character gains one level.

Crow: Characters grows a pair of black, feathered, wings that bestow the benefits of a cloak of flying. The wings are permanent additions to the characters body.

Djinni: Character gains one wish as the spell, which must be used within 24 hours.

Druid: Character gains the enmity of nature. At least once every tow months, a natural disaster (DM's choice) affects the character and everything within a 10-mile radius of them.

Gauntlet: Character's off-hand and forearm grow a layer of slimy fungus, which returns in 1d12 hours if removed. The character's touch upon the earth or any other fertile surface causes a 1ft.-diameter ring of mushrooms to form within ten minutes.

Giant Crab: Character permanently grows 60% larger. The giant character gains an additional +5 Constitution and +5 Strength, but loses 3 points of Dexterity. Lost Dexterity returns at a rate of 1 pint per month as the character adjust to the new size. Items do not grow to match the character's new size, however.

Hammer: Character inflicts 5 points of damage over and above normal with an unarmed attack.

Ice Sword: Character can cast chill touch as a 12th level sorcerer once per day.

Magma: Character sinks into the earth over the course of 4 rounds. The tunnel so created closes up 10 rounds after the descent begins, expelling any other being within it to the surface and inflicting 1d6 points of heat damage in the process. The user reaches magma at the beginning of the 5th round unless a dispel magic (DC 20) or similar magic is used to negate the effect before that time. (Rate of descent and distance traveled vary with the depth of the magma.) Immersion in magma inflicts 20d6 points of heat damage per round and negates the victim's ability to breathe.

Hand of Youth: Characters lifespan increases by 1d10x100 years.

Ogre: Characters Strength increases by +4, but Intelligence drops by 6 ( to a minimum of 5).

Sea: Character gains the enmity of the sea. Every time a character journeys on a large body of water, roll for twice as many encounters.

I do have a sneak peak of the Crow Card to share with you and I hope to have some more artwork to share with you soon.

As you can see I've just started painting it and there isn't much to see just yet, but not to worry you'll see this majestic beast completed before you know it.

Well thats all for this week, I've got to get some more painting done on this crow card before thrones starts. Thanks again to all the Backers of the Kickstarter for getting us to 142%. You're all amazing.